A lot has been written about how the DevOps revolution is making life much more challenging for cybersecurity. A big reason why: Security teams are largely missing from DevOps sprints and scrums today. This lack of security participation in a discipline that prides itself on breaking down silos and facilitating collaboration is creating a significant Cyber Exposure gap that needs to be addressed. As a result, cybersecurity is constantly scrambling to identify and secure assets and applications after release – like a never-ending game of Whac-A-Mole. Surely, there’s a better way.

Fortunately, there is. And the answer actually includes more DevOps – specifically, encouraging cybersecurity teams to embrace DevOps principles in their own processes and workflows. Here are three reasons why combining these two practices is a game-changer for security.

1) Built-in security

Security testing needs to live where developers live, namely in the DevOps pipeline. It’s critical to adapt security processes to the developer, and not the other way around. This ensures that security is not an afterthought during development and developers never have to leave their continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) systems for quality assurance testing. Building security into DevOps is a huge win for cybersecurity effectiveness.

2) Automation

Cybersecurity must embrace automated testing and auditing wherever possible. Organizations are releasing dozens, even hundreds, of software updates daily. Relying on manual processes makes it impossible for security to keep up. Instead, security tests should be triggered automatically with every build change or as new vulnerabilities are discovered. Continuous software delivery requires continuous security controls.

3) Proactive prevention

Given the choice, cybersecurity leaders would rather spend their time implementing higher-value security programs to support compliance and improve risk management (instead of playing Whac-A-Mole). Proactively identifying and remediating vulnerabilities during development saves a tremendous amount of time and money (over 85% by some estimates!) compared to remediating in production. The old adage is certainly true in security: An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

If reducing security costs, eliminating blind spots and accelerating DevOps is one of your 2018 objectives, check out the IDG whitepaper, 3 Reasons: Why DevOps Is a Game-Changer for Security. You’ll come away with steps you can take to foster a more collaborative and proactive approach to securing your organization and reducing your Cyber Exposure gap. It’s time to recast security from blocker to digital business enabler.